Maxed Out

Review: Not exactly the feel good movie of the year.

Produced and directed by James D. Scurlock from his own non-fiction book, Maxed Out is a scathing yet often funny expose of the credit card industry and an exploration of the increasing burden of credit card debt on Americans.

Scurlock's documentary covers everything from small town Americans to credit card industry professionals to even the White House. It focuses on people such as Mark Mumma, who leads an online campaign against the sub-prime credit card issuer Providian; Lynn Stavert, a widow whose credit card debt has forced her to sell her home and has stripped her of financial security; Larry and George, founders of a Web site that allows users to sell collectible debt online; and Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Law Professor and author of The Two Income Trap and The Fragile Middle Class.

Maxed Out interviews everyone from poor African-Americans in Georgia who can't escape debt to call center debt collectors and the alpha dogs who employ them. We meet families who have lost loved ones to suicide because of their credit card debt, and encounter credit debt entrepreneurs whose Type-A personalities seem to blind them to the less than savory aspects of what they're doing.

The film, while often darkly funny, is ultimately a tragedy because it paints a bleak portrait of Americans' financial outlook and how things will get worse for them before it gets better. The political and institutional structures in place to keep people in debt and to empower and protect those who profit from their hardships seem insurmountable.

One of the most oft-made and obnoxious defenses for corporate (mis)behavior is that a poor man never hired anyone so the rich must know what they're doing. This film articulates the counter-argument to that notion, which is that the rich wouldn't be rich without the poor to do their dirty work and to buy their goods and services.

But as powerful as Maxed Out is, it devolves into a political screed, essentially blaming George W. Bush (and his Republican predecessors) for everything that's wrong with average Americans' lives. The film takes a scattershot approach, throwing everything it can -- from the war in Iraq to Hurricane Katrina -- into the mix to see what can stick (and stink) the most.

Even though there are clearly larger forces at work that keep Americans indebted beyond the point of escape, individual choices often lead to bad mistakes that cause debt. People shouldn't fall for ads or sales pitches that tempt them to buy things that they can't truly afford. Only individuals can curb their impulse shopping instincts. You're your own first line of defense against corporate predators who thrive off interest like vampires to blood. If people don't have their own best interests in mind then why should the dealers who feed their habit?

The propagandistic Maxed Out is ultimately undermined by the fact that, as vile as many of its corporate interviewees seem, its everyman subjects are often just as culpable in creating and perpetuating the whole mess.